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Serengeti National Park

...flat surface land, often referred to as "The Sea of Grass On Plains". A protected area since 1940, the Serengeti gained National Park status in 1951 with extensive boundary modifications in 1959. It was internationally recognised as part of the Serengeti-Ngorongoro Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme in 1981 and entered in the World Heritage List the same year. The National Park, with an area of 12,950 square kilometres, is as big as Northern Ireland, but its ecosystem, which includes the Ngorongoro Conservation Area , the Maswa Game Reserve and the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya, is roughly the size of Kuwait. It lies between the shores of Lake Victoria in the west, Lake Eyasi in the south, and the Great Rift Valley to the east offering the most complex and least disturbed ecosystem on earth: the essential features of climate, vegetation and fauna have barely changed in the past million years and some patterns of life, death, adaptation and migration are as old as the hills themselves. A series of weathered granite outcrops called kopjes are scattered around the park like small mountains in a sea of grass. Most of these fascinating granite stones are miniature wildlife ecosystemsand are favourites among many big cats, including lion and leopard: rainwater gathers in the rocky clefts, providing much needed drinking water for a great variety of animals. This makes the kopjes particularly good for spotting wildlife in the dry seasons. While driving around the park it is easy to spot a lion or a cheetah lying on one of these massive stones, scanning the horizion in search for pray or merely resting in the sunset. The Moru Kopjes (meaning "old" in Masai) are the most frequently visited during safaris, displaying some interesting geological formations made up of ancient granite, left standing after centuries of erosion and weathering. The Gal Kopjes are another favourite safari destination offering excellent game viewing all-year round and interesting archeological sites yielding archaeological materials that range from Later Stone Age to Pastoral Neolithic and Iron Age periods.
The Serengeti National Park can be divided into four distinctive topographical areas:
the southern park area, which features the Serengeti open plains where, about 3 million years ago during the massive eruptions of Ngorongoro, a thick rain of ash settled creating a hard top coat which discouraged the rooting of trees but encouraged the growth of shallow rooted grasses packed with nutritious minerals;
the western corridor, a 50 km wide strip of land following the Grumeti River all the way up to Lake Victoria: this perennial river and its fringing belt of riparian woodland dissect the beautiful corridor hosting the annual migration between May and July, which is the best time to visit this area: during this time, the animals attempt to cross the flooded Grumeti River, where lions and crocodiles lie in wait for the young, the weak and injured. The corridor does however also support a substantial size of non-migratory animals, like the ever-present predators, giraffe, eland, hartebeest, huge hippos and impala;
the Lobo Hills are in the northern section of the park: as you move north into this area, the vast expanses of grassland plains dramatically disappear, as acacia woodland bush and thick scrubs take over. The undulating nature of the landscape makes it easy to spot animals from a distance. The wildlife changes too and it is in this area, that visitors are most likely to see elephants. Non-migrating game like elephant, buffalo, lions, zebra and gazelle can be viewed in this area all year round.
finally a central part, also reffered to as the Seronera area, is where most of the campsites and a few lodges are situated. This area features several kopjes and many watercourses and rivers, providing for some of the best wildlife safari viewing in the park: there are a large number of drivable circuits of which the Seronera River Circuit and the Kopjes Circuit are the most rewarding.
The Ndutu Lake areato the east with its Lake surrounded by beautiful acacia trees has become very special, as thousands of wildebeests calve in and start their annual migration from this area during the months that go from December to May. It is quite spectacular to see almost half a million little wildebeest being born and running alongside their mothers.
Each area has its own particular atmosphere and wildlife and, as in all Tanzanian parks, each season offers its own attractions providing for an unforgettable and remarkable african wildlife safari experience throughout the year. The Serengeti's climate is usually warm and dry: the main rainy season is from March to May, with short rains falling from mid October to December. The rainy seasons may affect road conditions, but this does not usually provide a serious problem. In these months all is lush and green after the rains and this golden expanse of grass is transformed into an endless green carpet flecked with wildflowers. Here and there zebras and whildbeests graze, an ostrich walks by while leopards soak in the evening sun placidly lying on the branch of a tree. But probably the most memorable of the park's animals is its thriving predators, which include the more than 3000 lions a great number of cheetahs, leopard, as well as over 8000 spotted hyenas.
Gradual drying up follows which restricts plant growth and encourages the animals to migrate in search of permanent waters. The Serengeti is famed for its Annual Migration , when some six million hooves pound the open plains, as more than 200,000 zebra and 300,000 Thomson's gazelle join the wildebeest’s trek for fresh grazing. Yet even when the migration is quiet, the Serengeti offers arguably the most spellbounding game-viewing in Africa.
But there is more to Serengeti than large mammals. Gaudy agama lizards and rock hyraxes scuffle around the surfaces of the park’s isolated granite koppies. A full 100 varieties of dung beetle have been recorded, as have 500-plus bird species, ranging from the outsized ostrich and bizarre secretary bird of the open grassland, to the black eagles that soar effortlessly above the Lobo Hills.
Yet, Travellers are not the only ones who now flock to see the animals and birds of the Serengeti. It has become an important centre of scientific research: in the late fifties, Dr. Bernhard Grizmek and his late son Michael did a pioneering work in aerial surveys of wildlife. It resulted in the best-selling classic "Serengeti Shall Not Die" and a number of films which made the Park a household name. The Serengeti Research Institute, founded in 1962 at Seronera, has continued its work, providing not only valuable information for the management and conservation of game parks but also original research in ecology and ethology. More is now known about the dynamics of the Serengeti than any other ecosystem in the world.
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